Murray set to cruise into Cincinnati final four with Simon win

Andy Murray’s form continued to improve in the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati as he booked himself a quarter final place with a comfortable win against Alex Bogomolov Jr yesterday.

He swept aside the American 6-2, 7-5 to avenge the defeat he suffered in Miami five months ago.

The World No.4 showed glimpses of his best form as he dominated the first set with some brilliant serving and powerful ground strokes. He dipped somewhat in the second to allow Bogomolov Jr a glimmer of hope before closing out the match with relative ease.

Murray now faces France’s Gilles Simon – who defeated David Ferrer of Spain in the last round – in the last eight and is confident his good form will see him through.

Speaking to the BBC, he said: “I played better today. I was struggling a lot in Miami and didn’t play well at all.

“So I am glad to come through in two sets and forget about the match I played against him in Miami.”

“I was hitting the ball a little bit cleaner today. I would still definitely like to do things better.

“I didn’t move particularly well, and that’s something that I’ll need to improve on in this kind of 10, 11 days before the US Open. I want to try and make sure that’s perfect before the start of the US Open.”

Murray has met Simon on seven previous occasions winning the last six encounters.

The Scot is rightfully the big favourite heading into this clash and it’s hard to look beyond a victory for him at 1/5.

Better value lies in backing him to win 2-0 at 4/7 as he has done in four of his previous six victories over the Frenchman.